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NFL Sunday
NFL Sunday is a sports TV program that has aired on SportsChannel since 1987. The show is presented similarly to SC's own SportsCenter, featuring scores, highlights & analysis of every game of the week in the NFL Format (1987-2005) Until the 2006 season, NFL Sunday aired every Sunday night during the NFL American football season & it preceded SC's coverage of NFL Sunday Night. The hosts recapped Sunday afternoon's NFL games with highlights, statistics & commentary. Rather than provide the usual package of scoring highlights, NFL Sunday presented extended highlights which also showed less dramatic plays. This provided context for the greater depth of analysis of each game. A staple of the show was the various Sam Spence instrumental pieces that played in the background during the highlights, while the hosts recapped each game. This often gave the games, even in highlight form, giving each game of the week a sense of identity, as well as giving all the games a more epic feel overall, much as the music had done for NFL Films documentaries. This feature continues during highlights on The Blitz Format (2006-present) When NBC acquired the rights for Sunday night games beginning in the 2006 season, NBC negotiated for exclusive rights for extended highlights during it's Football Night in America pre-game show. SC responded by moving the show to Mondays & splitting the program into 2 versions. SC shows NFL Sunday in it's old format during the playoffs Early showing Originally, the 1st version aired 2 & 1/2 hours before SC's telecast of NFL Monday Night, normally @ 6:00 PM ET. Due to low ratings (partially due to the repositioning of what was a Sunday evening staple), this early edition of NFL Sunday was relocated to the SC studios in New York City, New York every other week starting October 16th. In 2007, this show gained a new time slot, 4:00 PM ET, switching with SportsCenter's NFL Monday Kickoff, all programs were moved to the Bristol studio & the 2nd version's hosts were also assigned to the earlier show Late showing The 2nd version airs 90 minutes after NFL Monday Night ends & it originates from SC's studios. This is the only version of the show to actually be in primetime, albeit only on the West Coast @ 10:00 PM PT or slightly later. This version re-airs Tuesday afternoons @ 2:00 PM ET. Both versions show highlights, but for a shorter period of time than on the older program & with more extended analysis segments. The highlights on the current incarnation of NFL Sunday tend to be more story driven, emphasizing key player performances or game storylines as opposed to a normal recap that is found on SportsCenter ''The Blitz'' (2006-present) Following the re-tooling of NFL Sunday, the hosts were given an extended segment of the Sunday night edition of SportsCenter (11:00 PM ET) called The Blitz. The segment follows the same structure as the original version of NFL Sunday, featuring the hosts using the same player nicknames, catch phrases & back-&-forth banter as the original show. SC has not used the NFL name or logo in the official segment name or in advertising, leading to unconfirmed rumors of not being given permission to do so by the league. In 2007 however, on-screen graphics surrounding the set has referred to both "The Blitz" & "NFL Blitz" Early SportsCenter (2008-present) In 2008, an extended version of The Blitz has aired as part of SportsCenter from 7:00-8:00 or @ 8:15 PM ET. In addition to highlights, the network has extended additional game statistics, standings & leaderboards on the right-hand portion of the screen. It's in direct competition to Football Night in America, although it's believed that FNIA still has the official advantage in percentage of the show devoted to highlights See also *''Countdown to NFL Monday Night'' *''NFL Monday Night'' *''NFL TONIGHT'' *''The NFL Breakdown'' *''Countdown to NFL Sunday'' External links